tracie potts has more on the stalling fiscal cliff talks. >> reporter: lawmakers getting out of washington today while they can. >> eric cantor, house republicans talk about forcing members to be in town through the christmas holiday if a deal is not done before then. >> leave us alone! >> reporter: these are some of the frustrated constituents they will face on what can happen if social security jobs are cut. >> it's going to be backlogged and disability is going to skyrocket. processing time is going to skyrocket. lines out the door in our offices. >> reporter: they get advice when economists testify. plus, more fallout from what the treasury secretary tells cnbc could happen if there's no deal. >> administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. >> reporter: there's one small sign of progress. a republican source says president obama and house speaker john boehner spoke by phone. >> we need a response from the white house. we can't negotiate with ourselves. >> the hold upright now is that speaker boehner took a position, i think the day after the campaign that said we